Family Garden Fun at La Jolla Secret Garden Tour

 

Welcome to another of the homes on the recent La Jolla, CA Secret Garden Tour.  Stunning colors in this tablescape, right?!

This home was geared to including their children in the casually elegant gardening process and design. Rooftop garden on the playhouse, anyone?!

 Another clever table display was "cakes" made out of flowers!

 Pretty in pink!

There was an outdoor living room/lounge area as well.  Perfect for a cool summer evening!

 

This long tablescape was amazing too!  And the plant hangers on the fence are frames with succulents planted in them.

 More pretty in pink!

They also had an adorable home office backyard cottage that was quite chic and sophisticated on the inside.

 And of course, a lounge area for the little kiddies!

And a lounge area out front for big kiddies like my hubby Steve, too!

I hope you enjoyed this home's gardens!

Kathryn :) 

Gatsby Party at the La Jolla Secret Garden Tour

Yesterday my hubby Steve and I attended the 15th annual La Jolla Secret Garden Tour.  We go every year and the homes and gardens were over-the-top beautiful this year!  My personal favorite was the understated elegance of this East Coast-style home and its "Gatsby Party in the Garden."   I don't know who designed and catered this beautiful garden party as usually it takes a big team of several vendors to do all of it, but come on the tour here with me and enjoy!

 

As author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said,  "And I like large parties.  They're so intimate, at small parties there isn't any privacy."  

Hmmmmm...something to think about!

 The back lawn was expansive and stately...

 And the table was elegantly set...

 

 The gardens were in full bloom...

 and this HUGE stately old tree also attended the party too! 

 There was an artist in the garden and music playing...

 All guests were given a beautiful fresh gold-stemmed rose upon departing from the party.  Be sure to take yours!

Gatsby in the garden!

Kathryn :)

His & Hers Closet Sharing for Savvy Spouses

Remember the old grade school jump-rope chant,  "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...sharing a clothes closet!!"    Okay, so I modified the chant a bit!  (And I'm dating myself since that chant is from my 1960s childhood, but I digress!) :) 

Because it seems like so many couples have difficulty sharing a clothes closet without angst, especially when a "Melanie Messy" and a "Ned Neatfreak" marry,  (or a "Mike Messy and a "Nancy Neatfreak" since chaos knows no gender!),  I thought I'd explain how my hubby Steve and I organized our new closet that we share in our new 710 SF petite penthouse as it's working out just dandy!  (Okay, I admit we are both organizing zealots, but even if you're not...you can still use some of our tips!)

The photo above shows our empty "before" closet.

And here's our finished "organized after."

Our first tip for you is to each take a side of the closet as your "claimed" his and hers space.  Don't try and intermingle things!  Each person should have their own side/space.

The other must-have suggestion we have is to invest in quality hangers. I like hard clear plastic shirt hangers like this because of the swivel, and because I can hang my lace tank tops in the slots so they won't fall of the hanger.  For pants I prefer white tubular plastic hangers so the pants don't slide off the end like they do with open-ended pant hangers.

We went up up up with wire shelving from Home Depot that my hubby installed, and we have a few clear bins up there for things like my scrapbook supplies, travel items, and our important evacuation papers.

We also stacked plastic drawers from Target for my hubby's undies, casual t-shirts, socks, silk pj pants, and workout clothes.  Those are his drawers; I don't use any of them!

 

The stacking plastic bins with the white lids on the upper shelves are for my undies, lace tank tops, shorts/summer vacation clothes, workout clothes, extra purses, and shoes.  I like clear bins so you can see items through them.  We bought them at Wal-Mart.  Some of the bins I also labeled with my Brother label maker for additional ease of identifying what's in there at a glance.

The other thing we invested in this time was men's stackable large clear shoe containers from Container Store for my hubby's man-sized shoes.  They even have ventilation holes, no less.   Love these!  

 

My hubby chose this tie and belt hanger from Container Store.  It works great in a small closet.  It makes me smile when I see his Santa tie, his Monet tie, and ties I've given him as gifts over the years.

 

I also love various hooks mounted in closets.  Here I have one for my walking cape and hat and for my silk robes tht I buy for great prices at WinterSilks.   I also have an over-the-door hanger I can use to hang up a damp piece of laundry to finish drying.

 

Hooks also hold my glasses, sunglasses, hot packs, and purse.  The clear pocket caddy  hanging on the wall is usually mounted on the back of a door but we removed the hooks and screwed the pockets into the wall to hold my scarves, shawls, slippers, and the lint brushes.   This works so great because you can see the scarf colors and patterns at a glance when getting dressed.

We do not share laundry hampers.  Steve uses the black one, I use the white one, and the purple basket is for wet towels. Actually, the hampers are tall trash cans with flip-up lids from Target.  He does his clothing laundry and I do mine.   Plus I wash, dry, and fold all the towels and sheets as well.  If either of us has a super busy week we pinch hit on laundry for the other one, but we agree that it works best for us to do our own clothes laundry.

Last but not least, we also recommend sticking to just clothing in the bedroom closet whenever possible, except for the few items like we put way high up that we don't use too often.   The reason for this is you won't be bumping into each other trying to get at misc. things while also trying to get dressed to go out on a hot date!

There you have it!  My internationally bestselling book*, Small Space Organizing:  A Room-by-Room Guide to Maximizing Your Space, gives you oodles more tips and resources on how to organize your  bedroom closet and every room in your home!

Happy Closet Organizing, Savvy Spouses!
Kathryn :)

*Amazon bestseller rankings change hourly.

Our New Neighborhood

My new neighbor, Mr. Dapper Duck, wants to share some of the pretty sites that surround our new petite penthouse treehouse in our San Diego, CA neighborhood...

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my new San Diego, CA neighborhood!

Bloom!

Kathryn :)